I know one has to be very careful about wording here, but the broad question is does the Melee attack part of Spring Attack mean you can attack without AoO with something like a Trip or Unarmed Attack even though you haven't got Improved Trip or Improved Unarmed Strike.
Trip, I know, says "instead" of a melee attack, so I wasn't sure whether you could Spring Trip. There may be other examples of things which count as melee attacks too (Spring Disarm?)
Combat maneuvers are not actual attacks. They are actions you can take in place of attacks and therefor would not benefit from this part of spring attack that you are reading.
No. Spring Attack means your movementdoesn't provoke AoO's.
That's not what it says.
Richard
By RAW you're right, that's not what it says. It says any AoO's. That's just how i've played it, ie. Spring Attack with an unarmed strike, through threatened squares etc.
However, Combat maneouvres are in place of melee attacks - not melee attacks.
Combat maneuvers are not actual attacks. They are actions you can take in place of attacks and therefor would not benefit from this part of spring attack that you are reading.
You are thinking too hard about it.
I'm a GM. My players are the ones who think hard about these things. It came up in our last session, so I let it go on that occasion but said I would ask on this forum.
I traditionally consider the spring attack feat to only not provoke from movement - but I've reread it, and indeed I'd rule that it saves you from all forms of AOO with respect to the target.
Additionally, consider from the rules:
"Trip
You can attempt to trip your opponent in place of a melee attack."
Some maneuvers (specifically trip, disarm and sunder) may be made instead of a melee attack - meaning they can be applied with spring attack without any rules fudging. Other maneuvers generally cannot as they take a standard action (or attack action) to perform. (Exceptions can happen in concert with things like rage powers that allow special uses of maneuvers.)
Personally I'm lenient about that and do allow a spring-attacking dirty trick and the like, as it just makes sense.
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